Saturday, April 25, 2015

I think it gets a bad rap in the same way that Super Mario Sunshine gets a bad rap-- it is not a bad game, it just suffers in comparison to the more polished, beloved and innovative titles in the Zelda series in the same way Sunshine is a good platformer but is mediocre compared to 64 or Galaxy.

While the bad controls and some poor level design holds the game back, the production-- from the character & world design to the fantastic soundtrack to the neat little evolution of the Link & Zelda relationship makes this game hold a special place in my heart. Plus...

Today's subject is a figure from Good Smile's Figma line based on the character model for Skward Sword's Link!

Much like review of the Kill La Kill Nendoroid figures, the format I'm going to use is rating the figures based on packaging,
quality, pose-ability/functionality, creativity, and value.

Before we get to the review, check out the unboxing!

Sometimes I wonder if I should ditch the sunglasses? Thoughts?

Now, let's see how the product holds up under the rigors of trial and research!

PACKAGING

Much like the box-art and packaging of the Collector's Edition of Skyward Sword, is a work of Zelda art in it's own right: the colorful pallet, using the blue background with clouds and the repeated use of green, gold, white and red, in a very Zelda way, creates a composition that brings me right back to the gorgeous scenery of Skyloft. And, the inclusion of the Official Nintendo product and Skyward Sword logos make this a nice piece for my...uh...box collection. Well, when I say box collection I sound silly, right?

The boxes, though, seriously, are useful when it comes to figma figures as they give you example poses to work off of on the back of the box (pictured further below) and provide a storage unit for the various pieces and instructions.

Furthermore, the package makes a nice display if you wanna keep your toys mint! All-in-all, Japanese figure packaging beats the crap out of all the boxes I've gotten for figures in the States and figma is the best.

QUALITY

The sculpt and paintjob is a fantastic representation of Skyward Sword Link (pictured below) in all of Skyloft Knight glory.

There are some minor discrepancies to break down before we talk about the level of detail presented in the figure. Instead of chainmail armor, it seems they gave link a brown tunic layer under his classic green tunic. The shield and sword, along with his proportions in general, are slightly more heroicly built. In fact, the big and pleasant improvement on the figure over the game model is that the figure better matches the promotional art and design work of Link for the game that makes for a figure model that is superior to the game model.

As for the paint job, I really like how Link's coloration reads across up close and at a distance (the sign of a good work) and, like the fine work of art he is, he will be proudly displayed alongside my amiibos.

POSE-ABILITY AND FUNCTIONALITY

This is where the first problems pop up because, much like the game, this figure doesn't quite work quite like it is supposed to.

Link is quite posable and with a lot of functional accessories/pieces, the figure lacks in execution due to some fundamental limitations of the figure. While the figure has many points of articulation from his ball joint abdomen & neck to the many joins on his limbs, his biggest limitation comes from the sculpt of his tunic. While the sculpt captures the design perfectly, it creates to issues for posing the figure: the tunic's abdoment sculpt makes posing his arms upwards quite difficult and the bottom of the tunic restricts his leg posing quite a bit. This means most of his poses will be difficult to pull off, as opposed to a figure like the Ryuko Matoi figma (pictured above in defeat), and I spent a good bit of time just finding a few poses to pull off. Otherwise, you can pull off several dramatic and amusing poses if you have patience.

The hat joint is plus.

The accessories are a mixed bag ("he said it!"). The Master Sword and Hylian Shield are beautiful pieces of work that, with some trial and error, I discovered could be taken apart in several ways to allow you to pin the items to his back or in his arms in a number of ways. Some other accessories are a bit of a let down. I'm not sure how to use all of the hands in conjunction with the sword and shield, properly, and it can be difficult to attach them to the wrist ports. The other accessory that fails, hard, is the sword swoosh piece. This blue piece, meant to represent the animation of the Master Sword being swung, is too heavy for the wrists of most hands to handle and it is difficult to pose him with it attached to the blade.

And so, when it comes to what I can do with Link, I am left wanting more (maybe the Windwaker Nenderoid would deliver more).

CREATIVITY

This is where the figure, honestly, is most lacking. None of the accessories included surprised me and it would've been nice to get another face plate. The accessories they could've included would have been game items like hearts, rupies and/or chests or the tools that Link uses like the Grappling Hook or one of the lesser known (and therefore stupid) ones like the digging gloves.

But if there is anything to credit this figure with, creativity wise, is that it tried between the blue swoosh, sword/shield pieces, and the action hair piece.

I hope I never need an action hair piece.

VALUE

Usually this figure retails somewhere between $50 to $75 (plus shipping) on the legitimate suppliers I found online, with the less scrupulous websites and stores probably trying to sell something like this for as much as $100 (yikes), but I got lucky and picked it up on Amazon with free shipping for $35.

And for $35? That's a fantastic value.

Personally, I would never have paid $50 or more for this figure and I wouldn't recommend spending your dough like that. Then again I paid $25 for a King Dedede Amiibo that doesn't pose and only functions with Smash Bros. & Kirby's newest game.

So, I guess the value is pretty decent.

CONCLUSION?

I feel more meh or should I say "myeah!" about the figure then when I took it out of the box and played with it. Figma and Nenderoid figures I've picked up have blown me away with their creativity and quality, but this Link figure, while being a beautiful sculpt, fails to live up to the rest of the figures I've purchased in the line. But that doesn't mean I don't like the figure!

If you're a big fan of Skyward Sword or just want a high quality Link figure, I still feel that this Figma figure is best bet and makes a nice addition to any Nintendo fan's collection.

Loot Crate
is a subscription based service where members pay a fee (based on their
subscription plan) to receive a themed mystery box every month in the
mail (last month's theme, pictured above, was "Villains") filled with
nerdy products from companies like Nintendo, DC, Marvel, Capcom and much
more. The contents of the box usually contain things like exclusive
figures, a t-shirt, a magnet, pin/s, posters, comics, books, toys, and
pretty much everything you can think of from "dragon-flavored" Jerky in
April's "Dragon" Loot Crate to Deadpool socks (pictured above).

This is the perfect surprise for self-professed nerds that love cool stuff and weird stuff alike.

If
you're lucky, you might even be the lucky member to get the monthly
Mega Crate which always has a value of $750 or more!

This month's Loot Crate has a theme of "Fantasy" and so, if you know anything about me, my expectations were high and, with the promise of Dungeons and Dragons, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Princess Bride items (and a T-Shirt), I couldn't wait to open my box!

Cool Dad: Because he's the hero Hollywood deserves, but not the one it needs right
now. So we'll watch him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our
hero. He's a fursuit guardian. A watchful predator. A Cool Cat.

Monday, April 20, 2015

In Disney's desire to cross-promote their various franchises with cross-overs and, in order to ease the American audience into the idea of the X-Men (yes, they will somehow get rights to have the X-Men in their films), they will make Frozen 2 an X-Men film. How do they expect us to take that big pill of awesome? With a big glass of the following:

A few years after the events of the first film, Elsa AKA The Snow Queen, has taken her place as the rightful ruler of Arendelle with her sister, Ana, by her side. Ana and Kristoff have married and have an infant daughter. Meanwhile, Mephisto, a class two demon, Hell-Lord and father of several Marvel characters including Nightcrawler , will return to Norway to take his daughter, ELSA, back under his wing. The true origin of Elsa is revealed:

Elsa and Ana's parents were unable to conceive a child, or so they thought, and turned to dark magic books to solve their problem. Mephisto appeared and made them a child from the snow and promised they would conceive, but said that he will return for a Princess of Arendelle some day. They agreed, deciding they would raise the snow child, and return her to the daemon once they had their own child.

But love, true love for their snow child, made it impossible for them to make the sacrifice. They had another daughter and furthermore could not bare to give her up. They spent years trying to find an alternate solution or help, slipping past Mephisto at every turn as their snow daughter's powers increased, until, finally, he destroyed their ship for their meddling and they were lost at sea.

Now, Mephisto returns to Arendelle for a Princess: Ana or Ana's daughter will do... Then again, Mephisto is always willing strike a deal with the powerful Elsa!

Drama! Action! Super heroes!

Your welcome, Disney.

Call me. XOXO

P.S. I may or may not be suffering from food poisoning and haven't eaten in nearly 18 hours. So, I apologize if nothing I just typed makes sense. Still, Snow Queen could be a bad ass member of the like 1900's European X-Men called the X-Knights or something? You know you want it Disney! Think of the merch!

The universe needed a parody of Fran Drescher's klassic sitcom, The Nanny.

Well, maybe not a parody involving a horrible goat man monster grunting and whipping and making disgusting faces. Then again, I guess a horrible baby goat warrior is still more appealing than Fran Drescher's laugh.

You all knew this kid. In an innocent sort of way, it's cute. I mean the 90's did try to push the stereotype of "the cool black guy" into literally every kid's program or film. It's actually one of those weird examples of a positive stereotype that ultimately winds up hurting everyone because it sets up certain expectations (like "Asians are good at math").

But the older said kid gets, the less cute and more just embarrassing it becomes.